Thursday, May 08, 2008

The greatest movie of my teenage and young adult years was Fletch, starring Chevy Chase. My friends and I watched it every weekend. We knew the movie forward and backwards. We uttered every line of dialogue while watching and often quoted the film whenever we could.

We challenged each other to use lines from the movie in our normal conversations at work or at school or just anywhere really. The challenge was that the line had to fit into the conversation. You could not just throw a quote out haphazardly. Some of the lines are more difficult to include in everyday conversation than others. For instance, it is very difficult to include "What kind of name is Poon?" into a normal talk.

However, I use, all the time, whenever I see my wife wrapped in a towel after the shower, "May I borrow your towel. My car just hit a water buffalo." It works. This is an easy one.

The more random the quote and the more degree of difficulty the better the accolades we received from each other.

Every now and then I will get a phone call from my friends Tobes or Rob or someone else just for the sole purpose of telling me they used a "difficult" or random Fletch quote.

Yesterday I was on the phone making an appoinment with an eye doctor. The receptionist asked me for the normal information such as name, address, DOB etc. She then asked me who my regular physician was.

I had a Fletch moment.

"Dr. Rosenpenis."

She paused. "Dr. who?" She asked again

"Dr. Rosen rosen."

"Who?"

"Dr. Rosen." I then silently congratulated myself and told her my real doctor.

40 comments:

Bill, seriously. You and Lauren, my husband and I, we need to hang. We thought we were the only freaks who did this. The most common line quoted in our house is from Christmas Vacation. Anytime one of us asks a question like where do you want this, where should I put this, what do you want me to do with this - the obvious answer is "Bend over and I'll show you."

Fletch has always been one of my favorites to quote - and you're right, the line has to fit or it loses everything. I also find Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller and Better Off Dead (among others) to provide ample material.

Squeeze me? Baking powder? Um, I was there, and me thinks the level of sophistication you and your friends, the so-called Tobes and Rob, attribute to this 'challenge' is a bit inflated, or your definition of 'working it into the conversation' is perhaps a bit loose. Unless by 'working it into the conversation' you mean incessantly quoting Fletch to the exclusion of having any actual conversation.

That is so wrong. That poor woman. My husband and his college buddies were constantly using a line from that movie to the point it drove me insane. I suppose it's only for the better that I appear to have shut it out of my mind completely for I cannot remember what it was.

The only thing I can think of at this moment is Fred Flintstones curse words. Real curse words aren't in my vocabulary, so I use Fred's instead, "Ratchet fratchet..." My kids think its funny when I get frustrated on a video game and yell out, "RATCHET FRATCHET!"

When I was a student nurse in my obstetrics rotation my favourite was...'I don't know nuthin' bout birthing babies , Miss Scarlett!'...from Gone with the Wind.It has now evolved to be anything that was assumed I knew something about but have made a serious error of judgment. Such as driving with the oil light on red. (Yes, I can hear your groaning from here)The line is 'I don't nothin' about birthing cars, Miss Scarlett!'My husband didn't think it was funny either.

I have to give you props...that was hysterical...the receptionist probably thought you were a nut!

Pulp Fiction: "Mmm-mmmm. That is a tasty burger." "You mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down?" "Check out the big brain on Brett!" "That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten." "Mmmm! Goddamn, Jimmie! This is some serious gourmet sh*t! Usually, me and Vince would be happy with some freeze-dried Taster's Choice right, but he springs this serious GOURMET sh*t on us! What flavor is this?" "Nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda what's Fonzie like?"

Best In Show: "I know, and I remember I thought that was really sexy. I was drinking capuccinos... then I switched over to lattes... now it's double espresso macchiato." "And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn't talk, but he'd go "rrrawr rrawr" and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it's also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut."

Roxanne: (terrible movie but I love this line) "I thought you said earn more sessions by sleeving!"

Pretty In Pink & Breakfast Club come in pretty handy as well, but now I'm showing my age!!!

Anything from any Monty Python movie ('it's just a flesh wound" is a favorite) and Jaws... "We're going to need a bigger boat." when anything starts looking like a more difficult job than we thought. And there are many from Star Wars that come in handy with my kids: "Your feeble Jedi mind tricks do not work on ME." found you through Jans blog. The title "poop` and boogers" was intriguing.

I quote incessantly from The Princess Bride. The other day, when we hosted a little BBQ for my daughter and her friends who had just graduated from University, someone proposed a toast: "To the Grads!" Then someone else said "To the parents!" Then people looked at me.

I raised my glass and said "To the pain!"

I was the only one over 30 who understood.

There are online friends of mine who I can talk to and we can rattle the movie back and forth to one another. Props are given for context - but the best is when you dig out a quote from the movie that the other person had forgotten they knew.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go do some grocery shopping, make dinner, and blame Guilder for it.

1. French Kiss is a great movie. When I was pregnant with my oldest son (9) I must've watched that movie for nine months straight.

2. Even though Austin Powers' Goldmember is FUNNY, I still don't think my husband should've let the nine year old watch it, because it's *not* funny to hear your nine year old say "thanks, a-hole" to your six year old. Because then you have to go in the other room so you can laugh and then come back being stern, and that takes some of the stern out of it. And you worry that they'll say it at school or something, which just doesn't reflect well on you as a parent.